Oddly, as soon as I saw it, it was familiar to me from a very early, distant memory, although I had no specific childhood recollection of it. Perhaps it was reproduced in one of my books on dinosaurs (an avid interest circa ages 5 through 10)? In doing a little armchair research I rediscovered another very familiar mural: the magnificent Age of Reptiles by Rudolph Zallinger. (Interestingly, like Astori, Zallinger was a Russian, from Siberia). Age of Reptiles is a massive 110 foot long fresco panorama completed in 1947 at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. (I'm ashamed to say in my 4 years in New Haven I never did get over to the Peabody—I intend to go in August.) The mural was reproduced in several dinosaur books in the late 60s/ early 70s and that's how I know it.
Age of Reptiles (detail) Rudolph Zallinger
Zallinger was by far the better draftsman but there is something I love about Astori's Flying Reptiles. Somehow, his mural conveys "Lair of the Zorgons on planet Rilor" in a loopy science fiction sort of way, rather than "speculative view of life on prehistoric earth." Its a bit humorous (see the pterosaur antics in the details above) and I half expect to see a Maxfield Parrish nymph perched one of the rocks, nevertheless I'm simply drawn into that fabulous compositional spiral toward an ancient technicolor sunset.
3 comments:
That is my favorite painting in the museum as well. After this scorching July, it suggests the future as well as the past!
I recognized the "Age of Reptiles" painting from a series of children's encyclopedias we had when I was a kid. Our copy with the dinosaurs was well read. It may be outdated by today's standards, (especially in its portrayals of T-Rex and Triceratops) but back then to my dino-obsessed mind, it was a gift from dino-paradise! Then in 1966 (at age 5) I saw the traveling Sinclair Dinosaur Exhibit in nearby Vestal, NY. I just came across this link that brought back a flood of memories. Did you get to see this back then?
http://www.monsterbashnews.com/SinclairDinosaurs.html
Thanks for the memories, and now I'll have to look up the full version of that painting!
Wow I had no idea those dinosaur figures were a travelling exhibit at any point. Have just seen photos.
I read in that link they were originally at the 64 World's Fair?? When did they stop circulating I wonder... Sounds like their heyday was a little too early for me.
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